‘For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die’ (Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life)
Today I am sharing a quote by Anne Lamott and an extract by Albert Flynn DeSilver from their books on writing and living, which I came across recently.
The extract below caught my attention for many reasons. One being the miraculous way our bodies and minds work and the ways we hold or contain all that has happened to us, the good stuff and the trauma, at a very deep cellular level, and how at times allowing this past lived experience to surface can change us or our lives. Years ago I read about how during memory work a woman had retrieved memories of an exotic language spoken in a country she had never visited. She held amazingly great chunks of knowledge of this language without having a clue of how this had come about. She much later discovered that her mother had lived in this country during her pregnancy and while she herself was a baby. So it seems that nothing is lost, and that so much lies dormant within us for better or for worse. Another reason the extract caught my attention was that it vividly describes the interaction between past events and fantasy or symbolism; the layered aspect of memory and how memories can surface in a condensed manner; how remembering or processing contains seeds of liberation and release and the potential for integration of the many aspects of a memory or event. What surfaces as a trauma memory or dream may contain the resolution. A process that further allows us to catch glimpses of our younger self’s capacity to cope and make sense of the experience and also of the intensity of the emotions experienced by this very much younger self at times. And we may often also catch a glimpse of the impossibility of the situation and the power dynamics at play or at least the truth of this sinks in. This can happen as part or as a result of a meditation practice or during a session with an attuned and present therapist; any experience or context that feels safe, can contain our experience and sustain us.
An extract by Albert Flynn DeSilver from Writing as a Path to Awakening, published by Sounds True